Another common feature of popular culture is what geographer Karl Raitz labeled leisure landscapes. Leisure landscapes are designed to entertain people on weekends and vacations; often they are included as part of a larger tourist experience. Golf courses and theme parks such as Disney World are good examples of such landscapes. Amenity landscapes are a related landscape form. These are regions with attractive natural features such as forests, scenic mountains, or lakes and rivers that have become desirable locations for retirement or vacation homes. In much of Europe, rural regions that can no longer economically support agricultural production are increasingly viewed as leisure landscapes. Geographer Arjen Buijs and colleagues have documented in France and the Netherlands a shift in public understanding of rural landscape from one of a requirement for livelihood to one of an amenity offering comfort and convenience. Such shifts have strong implications for the future of rural life in western Europe, not least of which is the growing use of the countryside for vacation and retirement homes (Figure 2.53).

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The past, reflected in surviving buildings, has also been incorporated into leisure landscapes. Most often, folk or historic buildings that cannot be preserved in place are relocated to create a sort of outdoor museum. Many small towns across North America feature such historical villages. Examples include the Heritage Historical Village of New London, Wisconsin, which features five relocated and restored historic buildings, and the Historical Museum and Village of Sanibel, Florida, which includes seven building relocated from around the island (Figure 2.54). In cases where no historical buildings exist, history parks have been entirely reconstructed—for example, at Jamestown, Virginia, or Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Some of the larger re-created historical villages feature living history, which frequently includes both actors in period costume and skilled craftspeople practicing lost arts such as blacksmithing or candle making. Such sites can play an important role in developing and maintaining connections to the historic roots in contemporary cultural identities.